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Mad Magazine, as you now know it, will soon cease to exist - the end of Mad Magazine
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200 posts in this topic

2 hours ago, kav said:

He had a stroke of genius when the comics code started-he just changed the format from a comic book to a magazine and bypassed the silly code.

This is a myth. Mad was changed from a comic book to a magazine to appease Kurtzman who was considering leaving EC to start up a satire mag at a competitor. The silly code and the trouble that ensued came much later. Gaines was prescient but not that good.

Edited by GomerPyleUSMC
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18 hours ago, GomerPyleUSMC said:
20 hours ago, kav said:

He had a stroke of genius when the comics code started-he just changed the format from a comic book to a magazine and bypassed the silly code.

This is a myth. Mad was changed from a comic book to a magazine to appease Kurtzman who was considering leaving EC to start up a satire mag at a competitor. The silly code and the trouble that ensued came much later. Gaines was prescient but not that good.

Kurtzman DID leave, and was virtually never heard from again, except for Little Annie Fanny....maybe.  

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2 hours ago, Senormac said:

Kurtzman DID leave, and was virtually never heard from again, except for Little Annie Fanny....maybe.  

Trump Magazine

Humbug comic/magazine

Jungle Book

help Magazine

Then he became a teacher

Edited by Phantalien
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26 minutes ago, Phantalien said:
2 hours ago, Senormac said:

Kurtzman DID leave, and was virtually never heard from again, except for Little Annie Fanny....maybe.  

Trump Magazine

Humbug comic/magazine

Jungle Book

help Magazine

Then he became a teacher

Thank you!  I knew his mediocrity was remembered by the "short run collectors" out there. 

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Just now, Senormac said:

Thank you!  I knew his mediocrity was remembered by the "short run collectors" out there. 

Nope just collect MAD magazine stuff.   I happened upon those things when people were trying to sell the MAD mags.

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Just now, Phantalien said:
2 minutes ago, Senormac said:

Thank you!  I knew his mediocrity was remembered by the "short run collectors" out there. 

Nope just collect MAD magazine stuff.   I happened upon those things when people were trying to sell the MAD mags.

Haha !!  Me too.  I have almost all the first 200 issues. 

And comparing MAD's run to Harvey K.'s run...….

seems like MAD wins !! 

 

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On 7/20/2019 at 12:52 AM, GomerPyleUSMC said:
On 7/17/2019 at 10:40 PM, Senormac said:

MAD cashing it in ?  No wonder.  How many of the people that made MAD what it once was are gone ? 

Unfortunately most of them are gone. Even if the same people that made Mad what it once was, were still there today, they would have a tough time making it a success. I thought WaPo's editorial had a ring of truth when they wrote the times have changed too much for Mad to be relevant: "To be subversive, however, requires a dominant culture to subvert. MAD was the smart-aleck spawn of the age of mass media, when everyone watched the same networks, flocked to the same movies and saluted the same flag. Without established authorities, it had no reason for being. Like the kid in the back of the classroom tossing spitballs and making fart sounds, a journal of subversive humor is funny only if there's someone up front attempting to maintain order. We now live in a time when everyone's a spitballer..." 

This is brilliantly true and I've been saying it for years about many things (mainly about teenagers).

Rebellion against the norm was a business and now there is literally almost nothing to rebel against because nothing is 'normal' any longer.

Teenagers in particular are striving to find something to rebel against but the old rebellions by using tattoos, music, art, etc (even drugs on some level) just don't work as rebellion anymore as they are acceptable lifestyles today.

It's the same in art. There is no business in rebellion anymore because everyone is a rebel.

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On 7/20/2019 at 8:00 PM, Senormac said:

 

Haha !!  Me too.  I have almost all the first 200 issues. 

And comparing MAD's run to Harvey K.'s run...….

seems like MAD wins !! 

 

I wouldn't equate commercial success with critical success. Harvey Kurtzman's position on the Mount Rushmore of cartoonists is assured if all he had done were his issues of MAD. I find a lot of good stuff in both Kurtzman's and post-Kurtzman MAD but I think they're really two different things. I have ambivalent feelings about Feldstein's MAD. True, editor Feldstein pumped up the readership to more than two million during MAD's circulation peak. On the flip side he oversaw the largest readership drop to a third of that figure before his retirement. A missed opportunity that shows there's only so much of the same formulaic humor that can be replayed again and again.

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3 hours ago, VintageComics said:

This is brilliantly true and I've been saying it for years about many things (mainly about teenagers).

Rebellion against the norm was a business and now there is literally almost nothing to rebel against because nothing is 'normal' any longer.

Teenagers in particular are striving to find something to rebel against but the old rebellions by using tattoos, music, art, etc (even drugs on some level) just don't work as rebellion anymore as they are acceptable lifestyles today.

It's the same in art. There is no business in rebellion anymore because everyone is a rebel.

That's a pretty good observation Roy 

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2 hours ago, GomerPyleUSMC said:

I wouldn't equate commercial success with critical success. Harvey Kurtzman's position on the Mount Rushmore of cartoonists is assured if all he had done were his issues of MAD. I find a lot of good stuff in both Kurtzman's and post-Kurtzman MAD but I think they're really two different things. I have ambivalent feelings about Feldstein's MAD. True, editor Feldstein pumped up the readership to more than two million during MAD's circulation peak. On the flip side he oversaw the largest readership drop to a third of that figure before his retirement. A missed opportunity that shows there's only so much of the same formulaic humor that can be replayed again and again.

I guess I'm just not a Kurtzman fan.  (shrug)

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8 minutes ago, romanheart said:

My first reaction to the news was the usual feelings about print media dying.

Afterwards, it occurred to me that satire in our age is under attack. Whether it is political cartoons, political correctness, lawsuits, etc..., it seems there could be another reason for the magazine's downfall.

Satire is alive and well and probably will always be.

It was about the money...

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I may be one of the last people who had a subscription here.  When my kids were in their young teens (about 3 or 4 years ago) I got a subscription for them because of the fond memories I had for reading Mad when I was in my young teens.  Even then about half the magazine was reprints.  And the newer stuff didn't measure up IMO.  Still sad to see it go.

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